The World's 18 Strangest Movie Sets

In the age of computer-generated images, it's rare for filmmakers to spend a sizable chunk of their budget on an elaborate set that can more easily be created on a computer screen and digitally inserted into any scene. That doesn't mean there's not still some interesting sets from the past few years, but the overwhelming amount of awesome and weird sets were built before the age of CGI. With that, let's take a look at 18 interesting movie sets that span the past 95 years of cinema.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Background:The Empire Strikes Back was the first sequel of the Star Wars franchise. Before Star Wars became synonymous with CGI, painstaking work was done to complete realistic sets—not to dazzle, but to make the experience more believable.

How It's Unique:The Empire Strikes Back is the only film of the original trilogy where a full-size Millennium Falcon was constructed. For the first Star Wars (or A New Hope, if you must), only a portion of Han Solo's freighter was constructed. In Return of the Jedi, a the Falcon appears only in a background matte painting. (One scene with a portion of the Falcon model, taking place during a sandstorm, was cut from the film.) In the end, the life-size Falcon was approximately 70 feet in diameter, weighed 25 tons and was moved with compressed-air hover pads.

Intolerance (1916)

Intolerance (1916)

Background: In 1915, D.W. Griffith released The Birth of a Nation—a technical marvel from a filmmaking point of view but, unfortunately, blatantly racist. Griffith, in response to his critics, released Intolerance the following year.

How It's Unique:Intolerance takes place over the course of 2453 years—yes, you read that right—showing the roots of intolerance in cultures ranging from 539 B.C. all the way to the modern era (at the time) of 1914. Griffith built enormous sets, including a life-size Great Wall of Babylon in Los Angeles, and used 3000 extras for a production that cost more than $2 million. The film eventually bankrupted Griffith's studio.